Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American heist film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling. Summary Eight men eat breakfast at a Los Angeles diner before carrying out a diamond heist. Mob boss Joe Cabot and his son and underboss "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot are responsible for planning the job. The rest use aliases: Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, and Mr. White. After the heist, White flees with Orange, who was shot during the escape and is bleeding severely in the back of White's car. At one of Joe's warehouses, White and Orange rendezvous with Pink, who believes that the job was a setup and that the police were waiting for them. White informs him that Brown is dead, Blue and Blonde are missing, and Blonde murdered several civilians during the heist; White is furious that Joe, his old friend, would employ such a "psychopath". Pink has hidden the diamonds nearby. He argues with White over whether or not they should get medical attention for Orange, before Blonde arrives with a kidnapped policeman, Marvin Nash. Some time earlier, Blonde meets with the Cabots, having completed a four-year jail sentence. To reward him for not having given Joe's name to the authorities for a lighter sentence, they offer him a no-show job. Blonde insists he wants to get back to "real work", and they recruit him for the heist. In the present, White and Pink beat Nash for information. Eddie arrives and orders them to retrieve the diamonds and ditch the getaway vehicles, leaving Blonde in charge of Nash and Orange. Nash denies knowledge, but Blonde ignores him and resumes the torture, cutting off Nash's ear with a straight razor and attempting to set him on fire before being shot dead by Orange. Orange tells Nash he is an undercover police officer and that the police will arrive soon. When Eddie, Pink, and White return, Orange tries to convince them that Blonde planned to kill them and steal the diamonds for himself. Eddie impulsively kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying, since Blonde was loyal to his father. Joe arrives with news that the police have killed Blue. He is about to execute Orange, whom he suspects is the traitor behind the setup, but White intervenes and holds Joe at gunpoint. Eddie aims at White, creating a Mexican standoff. All three fire; both Cabots are killed, and White and Orange are hit. Pink, the only uninjured person, takes the diamonds and flees. As White cradles the dying Orange in his arms, Orange confesses that he is an undercover officer. White, sobbing, presses his gun to Orange's head. The police storm the warehouse and order White to drop his gun. Gunshots sound and White collapses. Cast * Harvey Keitel as Mr. White * Tim Roth as Mr. Orange * Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde * Chris Penn as Eddie Cabot * Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink * Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot * Kirk Baltz as Marvin Nash * Edward Bunker as Mr. Blue * Quentin Tarantino as Mr. Brown Trivia * Quentin Tarantino originally wanted to play Mr. Pink. * The budget wouldn't cover traffic control, so in the scene where Steve Buscemi forces a woman out of her car and drives off in it, he could only do so when the traffic lights were green. * The film's budget was so low that many of the actors simply used their own clothing as wardrobe. * Michael Madsen had difficulty filming the torture scenes, due to his strong aversion to violence. * During filming, a paramedic was kept on the set to make sure that Mr. Orange's amount of blood loss was kept consistent and realistic to that of a real gunshot victim. * Filmed in thirty-five days. * At several points, Tim Roth had lain in the pool of fake blood for so long that the blood dried out, and he had to be peeled off the floor, which took several minutes. * Quentin Tarantino wanted James Woods to play a role in the film, and made him five different offers. * Mr. Blonde's Cadillac Coupe de Ville belonged to Michael Madsen. * Quentin Tarantino had to fight Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein to keep the torture scene in the film. * The film was released in America with almost no promotion, so it did not do that well at the box office. In England, however, it was such a huge hit that Quentin Tarantino would be mobbed as he walked down the street in London. * Quentin Tarantino wrote the first draft in three and a half weeks. * Pop singer sensation Pink revealed in several interviews that her stage name was inspired by the character of Mr. Pink. * The film contains two hundred seventy-two uses of the word "fuck". * Quentin Tarantino was considering using "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet as a song for the "ear" scene.